Four Sprint Cup drivers entered in Daytona Beach Half Marathon

Jimmie Johnson, Michael Waltrip, Kasey Kahne and Aric Almirola will make the Daytona Beach Half Marathon part of their Speedweeks 2013 schedule.

KEN WILLISSPORTS COLUMNIST

The roster of racers who will trade horsepower for sneakers at Daytona has grown to four.

The field for the fifth annual Daytona Beach Half Marathon, which will begin and end at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 17, will be headlined by five-time Cup Series champ Jimmie Johnson and two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip. Fellow Cup drivers Kasey Kahne and Aric Almirola will join them for the 13.1-mile race.

The half-marathon begins at 6:30 a.m., and after one circuit of the famed tri-oval, runners will make their way east on International Speedway Boulevard, spend a tenth of a mile on the beach, then return to the Speedway for the conclusion at the track's start/finish line.

Later that day, the four drivers will hit the track again, but behind the wheel of their cars, for Daytona 500 pole qualifying. The 55th Daytona 500 is scheduled for Feb. 24.

The half-marathon shouldn't be overly taxing on Johnson, who has taken his personal fitness to the ultimate level – he's competed in triathlons, including an event in Palm Springs, Calif., in December, where he finished eighth overall.

“I've always felt that training and being in shape is an important part of being a driver,” Johnson said. “I started training specifically for the triathlons last year. It's been a great way to keep training fresh and new.”

Johnson said he ran the Daytona route last month when the Cup Series teams were in Daytona testing.

“I think the route is good,” he said. “I wanted to see what the elevations and things like that would be. The (ISB) bridge is going to be the hardest part of the route, I think. I like that we will start and finish at the track. It changes things up a little.”

Waltrip should also handle the route without much concern, since he's run four full marathons (26.2 miles). He quit running marathons in 2005, he said, when he finally broke the four-hour mark. His days of setting time goals are long gone, apparently.

“I've been running as much as I can to finish; I'm not really worried about a time in this event,” he said. “I'll have to wait to see how it goes.

“I've had a lot of fans tell me on Twitter they are looking forward to running with me and Jimmie Johnson,” Waltrip added. “I tell them, ‘You're gonna have to make a pick, either me or Jimmie. He's gonna be hauling (butt).' I'm gonna be cruising along. Jimmie is amazing. He's a well-trained athlete.”

Probably no one is as excited about the race as Volusia County Manager Jim Dinneen, a runner who has competed in 18 marathons over the years and the one who worked closely with the Speedway to organize this year's half-marathon. Dinneen, who's been training around his home in Ponce Inlet, will be running in what he hopes will become a destination event that grows every year.

He points to three main factors that could make that happen. One is the winter weather, or lack of it. Another is the Speedway's capacity to handle a crowd of just about any size. But the biggest is the experience itself -- of running on the famous racetrack, heading into the sunrise over the Intracoastal Waterway, cutting right along the edge of the ocean and finishing back on the track under a checkered flag.

"I would argue no other race in the country finishes at a more prestigious finish line, maybe in the world," Dinneen said. "Here, the checkered flag is the finish line. Name a more famous finish line.

"This will be one of the coolest, most memorable runs in the country," he said. "I've run enough to know."

For more information on the run – including registration details – the official website is www.daytonabeachhalf.com.